Not that much to say right now. I'm looking forward to Fringe and Castle getting new episodes. So does Grimm. Chuck will wrap up in January which makes me a little sad, but given the quality of some of the recent episodes, not as sad as I'd like to be, if that makes any sense.

@SteadyUP:I assume you mean the US Shameless? I was surprised how well the adaptation worked, though Joan Cusack's a surprisingly weak replacement for Maggie O'Neal's Sheila.

Justified's return will make a whole bunch of us happy.

(Suddenly realise I don't know when Fringe returns... ah, it's on the 13th.)

And, as for recent viewing... Sherlock - A lot of fun, though I think Moffatt's deciding to change Irene Adler from someone who beat Holmes to someone he has to rescue is not one I liked. And I still despise their Moriarty.

The big reveal of the "code" in the recent Sherlock was one of the most cringe-inducingly awful bits of TV writing I've seen in a long long time. Just a slap in the face.I'll probably watch the others because I like almost everything else about the production but my confidence in Gatiss and Moffat has nosedived. So not cool.

I didn't watch either of those DJ but I'm just gonna say yes, it was worse, partly because (I think) Who fans should know to expect unbelievable silliness. Here, it just felt lazy, cheesy, and totally inconsistent with the way the story was set up. Guh.

The intro sequence to the latest episode just wins the whole season. Truly well constructed fight scene.

Colm Meaney has been truly showing himself to be a fine, well-developed actor. The low growl in his voice is developing into something resembling the Batman crossed with Baron Harkonnen. I could listen to him read his laundry list.

Downton Abbey is a lot of fun and really well done. I didn't realize until yesterday that there were only 7 episodes in the season, so I'm making it a weekly watch rather than a daily thing. (I'm recording the new season for when I run out.)

I'm also watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time. I'd heard good things about it, and so far I'm very pleased. There are enough episodes of it that I can watch it every day.

Also watching the first season of Portlandia, which is a gas. I live near Portland, and have never really run into folks like the ones they are mocking, but it is still hilarious.

I hope you will all forgive me for the tone; I have been throughly enjoying the second season of Sherlock, but the last episode...

The last episode wasn't just a disappointment it was fucking offensive to me as a viewer.

From the first scene it was trite, a rehash of everything we've seen before, and utterly, utterly obvious. Every shot lingers on every single clue shouting "I AM IMPORTANT LOOK AT ME" and even the fake-outs are telegraphed as fake outs. The mysteries are obvious and I ended up just sitting there waiting for the inevitable. This would have been fine, if it hadn't been treated as the BIG SHOCKING MOMENT that it desperately wanted to be.

The plot is nonsensical:

why would they have a trial for Moriaty, if he didn't exist as a real person? Why would Richard Brooks want to portray a sociopath, if the murders ACTUALLY HAPPENED? How naivé do you have to be? "Richard Brooks"? Really? That's worse than "I Am Sherlocked". And did they really expect us to believe Sherlock had died, after having that talk with Molly, and the garbage truck driving away from the scene, just as they discovered his body? And why wouldn't anyone check his face or DNA?

The characters act as if they've suffered moderate to severe brain damage. A bit of cognitive bias is to be expected, but really? And Sherlock takes too long to figure out the riddles and clues. This isn't the Sherlock of A Scandal in Belgravia. I understand it's hard to write a genius, but Moffatt and Gatiss makes a pretty decent go out of it.

The actors do great with what they have, but the lack of surprises and cleverness drains it of any drama it had.

I was just really disappointed with the last episode of one of my favorite TV series on right now. Apologies for the tone and the fannish attitude. I just expected far better.

@Govspy It certainly is, a friend of mine is working on it. Not sure how good it'll be though. Those easter specials they filmed a couple of years back were an attack maggot short of being completely horrifying.

because nothing has ever been worse than that. EVER. The name just didn't add any force at all to the story, it was irrelevant. Moreso as it references a case that is only given a few scant seconds of screen time in the midst of a confusing montage of press conferences and headlines. And we're supposed to accept that this is now his most famous exploit? Wait, why was that again?

I did think there were some very nice dialogue moments, strong performances and some genuinely creepy bits, I just wish they'd not spent so much time on expository mythologising of a character who is already pretty much the go-to model for emotionally unavailable intellectualism. We get that he's an unempathic, brilliant asshole - we don't need it constantly rammed in our faces at the expense of actual development. They could have taken a few cues from House, which handles this exact same dynamic with much more nuance and depth.The swooning fans and inevitable, pointless speculation-fests I would happily endure if I thought the actual meat justified it, but this series finale made about as much sense to me as the Captain America movie.

eta: Three ranty posts about Sherlock on a single page is probably maggot-bait. I don't mean to crap all over the show, I mostly enjoyed it, but it came so close to being properly fantastic and then let itself down so damn hard.